Successful negotiation between Indigenous Peoples and profit-driven
corporations requires copious diligence and time. The Saami reindeer
herders of Finland campaigned exhaustively for eight years to achieve
protection of their homeland’s ancient pine forests. The eventual
preservation of 80 percent of demarcated herding lands in 2010 remains a
landmark accomplishment and precedent-setting example for Indigenous
communities seeking corporate recognition of their established rights.

The
only Indigenous people of northern Europe, the Saami have always
maintained traditional reindeer herding as the central aspect of their
culture. The free migration of grazing reindeer between cooperatively
owned pastures takes place on Saami occupied land, 90 percent of which
is owned by the government of Finland. In 2003 concerned Saami
communities, along with Greenpeace, marked forest area crucial for
herders. The land contains pine trees up to 500 years old, which act as
an incomparably efficient carbon sink, and houses tremendous
biodiversity including many endangered species.

These once
prolific, culturally cherished old growth forests were intensively
clear-cut and siphoned off to paper and pulp mills primarily owned by
Metsähallitus, Finland’s industrial forestry service, which relied on
this domestic timber source for 75 percent of its production. Finland
contains just 0.5 percent of the world’s forests; the remaining 5
percent of its old growth forests are primarily used by Indigenous
Peoples.

Metsähallitus’ unsustainable management practices, in
conjunction with the government’s lax enforcement of legislation that
would have preserved the old growth forests, posed a grave threat to
Saami herders whose culture depended on close interaction with the
forest ecosystem. Disregarding the area’s status as High Conservation
Value Forests, Metsähallitus regularly practiced invasive clear-cutting
and converted ancient forests to pine and spruce monocultures.

Despite
international human rights mechanisms such as Articles 13, 14, and 15
of ILO 169, which specifically protect the land rights of Indigenous
Peoples, and Finland’s Reindeer Husbandry Act of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry, which states that the land “may not be used in
a manner that may significantly hinder reindeer herding,” Saami herders
found their livelihood strained.

By ignoring Saami rights in
favor of maximum profit, Metsähallitus’ unchecked logging resulted in
the disruption of traditional pasture cycles, decimation of the central
winter food source of hanging horsetail lichen for grazing reindeer, and
according to assessments published by the Finnish Environmental
Institute and Red Data Book for Finland, the endangerment of 70 percent
of national forest habitat types and the near extinction of countless
forest species. The government and the corporation repeatedly denied
Saami requests for proper protection and demarcation of their vital forests in northern Lapland, failing to implement the already weak
conservation standards of Finland’s Forest Act. Instead, Metsähallitus
was merely asked to “collaborate” with reindeer herders—a process that
was reportedly limited to informing cooperatives of when and where
logging would occur, with no enforced obligation to obtain Free, Prior
and Informed Consent before the clear-cutting.

Absent the promise
of negotiation, Saami herders found themselves fighting an uphill battle
against a corrupt conflict of interests: the majority of the logs cut
by Metsähallitus were purchased by StoraEnso, a European paper supplier
whose largest shareholder is the government of Finland. But the Saami
were not alone in their struggle to reclaim their land. With help from
Greenpeace and the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, reindeer
herders and the Saami Council mapped out areas that required
preservation in order for herding to continue.

Mattias Åhrén,
Chief lawyer for the Saami Council, credits Greenpeace’s assistance for
the campaign’s success. “They put up a camp in the area and basically
tried to stop the logging activities physically by placing themselves
between forest machines and the forest. This camp was then harassed by
the timber workers there, the employees of Metsähallitus. So of course,
this conflict attracted media,” Åhrén said. Metsähallitus continued to
deny Saami appeals to suspend logging pending the investigation of their
practices, so eventually the UN Human Rights Committee was engaged to
exert pressure on Finland. In 2004, the Finnish government was
encouraged by the Human Rights Committee to negotiate with the Saami
people and to “swiftly take decisive action to agree to an appropriate
solution to the land dispute with due regard for the need to preserve
the Saami identity.”

During this time, three reindeer herders from
the village of Nellim began preparing a lawsuit against Metsähallitus
and the Saami Council took critical action to inform StoraEnso’s
consumers of the dispute. “We analyzed StoraEnso’s customers and
addressed them, particularly in Central Europe and Germany, and
basically [told them] that StoraEnso was purchasing timber that had been
cut in violation of the human rights of those reindeer herders that use
the area and requested that they should not buy any products from
StoraEnso. We also contacted larger states in Europe, and that resulted
in the UK sending their parliamentary committee to Helsinki to meet with
us to see whether the public in the UK should stop purchasing
StoraEnso’s products,” Åhrén said.

These actions prompted waves of
demonstrations in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and
Italy, with consumers refusing to accept StoraEnso’s unjust business
practices. In 2005, the lawsuit against Metsähallitus by Saami people
from Nellim was settled temporarily by the UN Human Rights Committee
through a logging moratorium. Even still, StoraEnso and its Forest
Steward Council certifier refused to meet with the Saami Council and
relevant NGOs before carrying out audits. In June 2006, StoraEnso
released a finalized risk assessment claiming that with regard to FSC
wood standards, Finland should be considered “low risk” and that
disruption of the Saami homeland “does not concern the district.”

It
was Åhrén’s belief that the biggest motivator for consumers to boycott a
product is becoming aware that a corporation has evaded a commitment to
conducting business in ethical ways—in this case, by violating
Indigenous rights. “We addressed these ethical indexes because StoraEnso
was listed on a number of those, and basically said that StoraEnso
should be de-listed because of these activities. A couple of these
[indexes] initiated research and started to investigate the situation,
and contacted StoraEnso saying that they were now subject to these
investigations,” Åhrén said.

Prior to the resolution of the
lawsuits pending before the Human Rights Committee, StoraEnso, under
intensifying pressure from dissatisfied consumers, announced in 2006
that it would no longer purchase any timber coming from disputed areas
like Nellim. “It was quite effective,” said Åhrén of this victory. “When
these corporations started to investigate StoraEnso they got really
nervous, because if they should be de-listed from these indexes they
would lose a large base of their investors, which would result in stock
prices to fall.”

From 2009 to 2010, Saami reindeer herding
cooperatives entered into negotiations with Metsähallitus to establish
protection for forests important to traditional herding. Ultimately, out
of the original 1,070 square kilometers of land mapped out in 2003,
approximately 800 were designated off-limits from forestry either
permanently or for the next 20 years. “We have had other campaigns, but
none as large as Metsähallitus and StoraEnso,” said Åhrén. “It is
difficult resource-wise to pursue these types of campaigns. You have to
really pick your fight, pick the symbolic ones. Take those that might
then be used as precedents, otherwise you will have way too much work to
handle.”

Image: Logging of the forest area in Paadarskaidi in
northern Finland by Metsähallitus posed a major threat to reindeer
herding, which is central to Saami culture. Photo by Dutchbaby.